Google opens second Belgian data center

To “arm itself against the exponential growth of data”, American technology giant Google on Tuesday opened its second Belgian data center in Saint-Ghislain, near Mons. The project involves an extension of the existing infrastructure and an investment worth €300 million, report Belgian media.

The data center in Mons is important to Google, as it is one of just 13 such data centers worldwide. All services offered by the Internet giant in Europe, such as the Google search engine, e-mail service Gmail and video site Youtube, are partially run from the site.

After the initial opening of the site in 2010, Google announced that an extension was imminent in order to meet growing demand for its online services. Since the founding of Google in the late 1990s, the number of Internet users has gone up by 1,200%. The number of smartphones shipped per quarter increased by 800% since the launch of the first Google-run Android phone in 2008.

The expansion is positive news for the Belgian economy. Google employs 300 people to work in its data center, but since the start of construction in 2007, the data center has indirectly accounted for an average of 1,500 jobs per year, according to research by Copenhagen Economics. The same research shows that the Google data center already pumped €900 million into the Belgian economy.